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Konica Minolta Holding Inc said Thursday it made a net profit of 40 billion yen (331 million dollars), up 187.7 percent from the same period of last year, during the nine months to December.

The company maintained its full-year forecasts, which it raised in November to 46 billion yen after seeing strong sales of electronics goods.

For the nine-month period to December, Konica Minolta posted 70.35 billion yen in operating profit, up 6.5 percent, on total sales of 744.60 billion yen.

The company said that lower sales in the photo-imaging business were offset in the third quarter by a healthy performance in electronics products.

Despite falling prices, Konica Minolta said it was "able to offset that impact through such measures as groupwide cost reduction efforts as well as moves to increase the sales quality, primarily due to rises in sales of new products and high-added-value products."

A company statement pointed to robust sales in Europe of the Bizhub C series of high-end photocopiers.

But it said the company anticipated "considerable challenges" throughout its business segments in the rest of the financial year due to intensifying price competition.

Konica Minolta announced in January 2006 it would stop making all cameras -- selling off its high-end camera business to Sony -- and that it would slash 3,700 jobs or 11 percent of its global workforce.

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